urban vegetable patch

We are very lucky to live in an area of Melbourne that has such abundant wildlife. But as nice as it is to see and hear birds, possums, lizards etc it can also be a challenge. We are currently being visited every night by bats and can hear them chattering in the trees and also hear them as the flap their huge wings and fly over the house at night.

But “Houston, we have a problem” they are literally bombing our house with bat poop… it is getting everywhere – on the house, on the pavers, on the driveway and on the cars. I would hate to think what might happen if we left washing on the line overnight!

At first we couldn’t work out what they were after, usually they visit in the warmer months and eat the neighbours fruit on the loquat tree, but its not loquat season? At last we realised they are arriving each night to feast on the berries of a neighbouring lilly pilly tree… the berries are black, so that will give you an idea of the tar like “bombs” that we are being hit with.

Has anyone else experienced an ongoing problem with bats bombing them????  Would love to hear from you.

In our alphabetical series of posts about various aspects of vegetable gardening, I thought B might be for bugs in the Vegetable Garden. But not the bad ones… lets look at a double B – Beneficial Bugs!

Bad bugs get loads of press, so I thought by looking at the good bugs, it may give you some ideas on controlling those bad, nasty and destructive bugs that can seemingly devour a vegetable garden overnight!

Ladybugs

There are good ladybugs and bad lady bugs, so how do you know which is which? Well its all in the spots!

The 28 spot ladybug is bad, but before you go squashing it make sure that it is destructive, if your vegies aren’t under threat maybe leave it be. But if you find an 18 spot ladybug, you should be delighted, these are the good ones. They will happily munch away on thrips, aphids, grubs and a few other nasty bugs.

Not only that they are quite an attractive little bug to have hanging about your vegie garden. Kids love them!

Lacewing

These are a green bug with 4 clear wings hence their name lacewings. And its the hungry little larvae of the lacewings that are predators. They devour pests such as scales and mealybugs, aphids, moth eggs and smaller caterpillars. I read somewhere that they can eat approx 60 aphids in an hour, now that’s an appetite!.

Spiders

While you may sometimes despair when you get tangled up in a web in the garden and then do the crazy “I just ran into a spiderweb” dance. Spiders are your friends, they eat various bugs and while you need to be wary of them eg redbacks, white tails and funnel webs just to name a few… they can be particularly handy.

There are a number of other very handy bugs that can take out the nasty ones, these also include wasps (citrus gall wasp is great for citrus trees), some bugs such as the Damsel Bug, Predatory Shield bug and this one sounds good… the Assassin Bug!

So how do you get these beneficial insects into your garden?

Attract these beneficial insects into your garden by planting a few attractive plants such as sunflowers, daisy’s, borage, parsley, rosemary,coriander and native plants, just to name a few.

You may decide if your infestation is bad, to buy some beneficial bugs. There a number of suppliers in Australia that sell these beneficial insects and a couple that I have found that sell via the Internet are: Bugs for Bugs – www.bugsforbugs.com.au & IPM Technologies – http://www.ipmtechnologies.com.au

If you are interested in finding out more about beneficial bugs, take a look at this newly released book – Bug: The Ultimate Gardener’s Guide to Organic Pest Control

Well, it wasnt snow, cotton wool or a spiders web.

So what was it?

This was the big question facing vegie patch owners Fiona and Peter and their family.

The even bigger question was, “is it bad”?

Having just recently planted their vegie garden they began to wonder what they had done to cause such a problem.

So after a couple of photos, they began to surf the net for an answer and after just a short while, they found the answer.

And it was all good news, they had done nothing wrong and the white stuff was in fact a fungus, but a good sort of one. Saprotrophic Fungi.

According to the Fungi section of the CSIRO – Saprotrophic fungi (also known as saprobes, saprophytes) obtain their energy and nutrients by breaking down dead organic matter such as in soil, litter, dung, and wood.

And for a bit more info a search of www.environment.gov.au came up with this info: Saprotrophic fungi obtain their nutrients from dead organic matter. There are many forms of dead organic matter—leaf litter, dung, soil, dead animals, wood and dead fungi-to name just a few. Saprotrophic fungi use them all. Saprotrophic fungi feed on and recycle about 85% of the carbon from dead organic matter, with bacteria and animals responsible for the other 15%. These fungi release the locked-up nutrients that can then be used by other living organisms, making the fungi vital to the health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems around the world.

The original answer that gave way to further investigation came from Wiki Answers: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_can_you_remove_mold_from_the_dirt_in_your_garden

The cause may have been due to the fact that the weather had been quite warm and all of a sudden the garden owners received almost 100mm of rain in just a couple of days, and with the weather still being warm, decomposition of the organic matter may have been quicker than usual for that area of Australia.

But whatever the cause, we found it fascinating to look at and we learnt something ourselves.

If you have come across a problem in your garden and then solved, it feel free to share it with us and the readers of the Urban Vegetable Patch.

There are some juvenile delinquents roaming my neighbourhood at the moment and boy are they sneaky!

My juvenile delinquents are in fact 2 young butcher-birds… I have done the “crazy vegie gardener” thing ( I think much to my neighbours amusement) and waved my arms and “shooed” them, but they hardly take any notice and fly into the large gum tree, pretend to hide and then after a while they return. So what are they doing?

They are sneaking cherry tomatoes… And are doing so through the bird netting…. its actually quite an achievement and I have watched them do it out of fascination for their skill, they put their beak through the netting, latch onto a tomato and then twist and manoeuvre it through the netting, I don’t quite understand how they get a tomato through the netting but they do it.

But the worst thing is they are only doing it as a bit of sport, they don’t eat the tomatoes, they bite them, then throw them on the ground and try for another. I am not sure if my tomatoes just aren’t to their taste or if it is a bit of a game.

Wonder if  I built a scarecrow, if that would work???

Organic
By Don Burke

As a six-year-old he started his own vegetable garden under the watchful eyes of his father and grandfather. Now Don Burke is known as Australia’s foremost authority on all things gardening.

Organic covers all that you need to know to start and cultivate your own vegetable garden including composting, pests and diseases, growing conditions, chickens, harvesting and scrumptious recipes.

In a poor economic climate, good quality, inexpensive food is hard to find to feed your family. Why not start a grocery store in your own backyard? Find out the benefits of growing your own vegies for yourself, including cost-cutting, family fun, fresh produce and greater variety of species unavailable in stores.

From terrace pots to acreage, grab your gardening gloves and seedlings, and your family will enjoy building the garden, no matter the size of your plot.

Purchase online – Organic: Don Burke’s Guide to Growing Organic Food

There is nothing worse than having your beautiful vegie plants seriously attacked by pests. You love and nuture them and suddenly almost overnight, they are devoured by hungry pests!

But the good news is this is a battle that can usually be fought and won, although sometimes the battle can be lost if the hungry hordes arrive unseen.
But here is one of my favourite recipes for ridding my vegie patch of catapillars, aphids and other common pests.

Put into a  spray bottle, 1 litre of warm water and stir in two tablespoons of soap flakes.  Stir this until completly dissovled and allow to cool. Then simply spray onto the leaves of your plants.

It is a good idea, not to spray fruit and vegies within 1 week of picking and remember to store all solutions out of the reach of children.